PVM Joins in First Purdue Day of Giving

May 7, 2014

The Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, along with other academic and non-academic units across the West Lafayette campus, celebrated the first “Purdue Day of Giving” April 30. The 24-hour, online event, focused on student affordability and accessibility, among other areas, and featured web-based social media components to engage donors. With the theme of "Opportunity Granted," the Day of Giving was designed to encourage Purdue students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and friends to give to the university.

“The main objectives were to drive traffic to our web site and encourage participation through such tools as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as a way of helping to start social media conversations about our college,” said PVM Director of Advancement Jeff Spielman. “What we set out to accomplish we did. We raised just under $20,000. We also had more than 100 participants giving during the event and many folks who did interact on social media. Thank you to all the Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumni, donors, faculty, staff, students, parents and friends who helped make the first-ever Purdue Day of Giving a success. It is because of each of you that we will continue to make a difference and provide ‘opportunities granted’ for our College and students.”

Special activities during the Purdue Day of Giving included a festival and cookout on Purdue’s Memorial Mall, where members of Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s Pets for People Club stole the show with their therapy dogs. To view an album of photos from the event, click here. PVM Web Editor/Team Leader Terry Patterson also created a Purdue Day of Giving hat template that people could download and use for their pets when taking photos to post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Publicity leading up to the day included features about Purdue donors. One of the individuals featured in a series of stories entitled, “Passion for Purdue,” is Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s Barbara White, administrative assistant and graduate program coordinator in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology. “I give to Veterinary Medicine because I have a passion for animals in need,” said Barbara, who herself is a Purdue graduate (LA’75, MS’81). Barbara supports the Stanchik Fund for Ill and Injured Animals, to help defray the cost of necessary veterinary care for owners who face a hardship in paying for that care. “That’s a cause I can get behind,” she commented.

The story recounted how Barbara also showed her passion for animal welfare when she responded to an e-mail from the Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s blood donor program about a greyhound in need of adoption. “I took her home for a visit and I fell in love,” Barbara explained. Retired greyhounds in need of rescue or coming off the track find loving care through the blood donor program, which serves as a canine blood bank to store blood from universal canine donors. “Once a month, the dogs donate their blood,” said Julie Commons, small animal internal medicine technologist at the VTH. “This blood can be used for any canine recipient in need.”

Seven weeks after adopting Amelia, Barbara opened her home and her heart again, this time to Paulie, another greyhound in the blood donor program. Barbara, who contributes financially to the program, is very proud of her furry babies for being blood donors. “They get so excited and dance around when I ask them if they want to be a hero today.” She added, “It has done so much for me personally to see these dogs be part of a donor program that saves lives...It makes me happy — no, joyful — that the dogs can give in this way.” To view Barbara’s story on the “Passion for Purdue” website, click here.